Graphite.
Wonderful stuff. The storytelling tool of the ages. With a pencil, I can describe emotion and thought, the spirit of life, I can transform an idea into an image.
For years, no matter how many times I've been trumped by a painter or a sculptor, no matter how many times people have lost faith in the work, withdrawn their support; no matter how many times I've been belittled and condescended to for "my little sketches", I have always remained faithful to my art. I know the power it has over people - you can see it in the eyes when they receive the work as their own, that awe-inspiring moment when they are transported somewhere meaningful within themselves.
That is the power of art. That is the love of art. And when people seek to demean it, and cast it down because of what it provokes in them, I feel a great sadness that their need to reject life is stronger than their need to embrace it. That their need to destroy is more powerful than their love of creation.
And every time it happens, every time someone becomes immune to the joy and the love of the work in front of them, when they can't support something good and beautiful in the world, when they have to attack something wonderful in order to feel like they can control through destruction, I still have the greatest weapon in the world against it. And it's a pencil.
Those who cannot support the good things in the world will support the misery and suffering that exists without them.
Art, music, theatre, dance, all the passionate reasons for living, for loving, for engaging with the beauty of being alive, for uplifting the human spirit - without them, without artists, we would be lost.
I am proud to be counted among them. I have no need for those who show no support, no faith, no love, in the work. They, most of all, are the ones who need us.
